WILL Press Room
Teens Research Assets They Can Use
Monday, May 18, 2009
Teens in the E2Y (Engaging and Empowering Youth) Project want to interview business owners, community leaders and others about opportunities for youth.
African-American teens in Champaign-Urbana live in the community, but often don’t feel part of the community, says Patricia Avery, executive director of the C-U Area Project. “There’s been a disconnect between youth and adults,” she said.
This summer a group of 10 teens in the E2Y (Engaging and Empowering Youth) Project will interview business owners, neighbors, community leaders and others to identify and map opportunities for youth in the cities. “They can find out what kind of recreational opportunities are available in their immediate communities, what kind of job opportunities are available.”
When she grew up, said Avery, older men in the community hired boys for odd jobs and helped them learn self-confidence and a trade. “They got all of that from just being around these older gentlemen,” she said. The E2Y project can connect young people to adults in the community who can provide the kind of information and help that will enable youth to make their lives richer and more rewarding, she said.
Avery asks adults in the community who would be willing to be interviewed by the teens to contact her by email at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or phone at 217-373-2827.
Teens will concentrate on mapping assets in the Garden Hills and Holiday Park neighborhoods in Champaign, the Scottswood neighborhood in Urbana and the North End of both cities. They’ll be using a mapping curriculum developed by the Illinois Rural Families Program.
Illinois Public Media is partnering with the C-U Area Project, the Mental Health Center of Champaign County, and the University of Illinois Community Informatics Initiative in the Graduate School of Library and Information Sciences on the project, funded in part by a $10,000 grant from the Lumpkin Foundation. Illinois Public Media will train the teens to make videos of their interviews with people in the community.
Kimberlie Kranich, WILL’s director of community outreach, said students are learning how to use small portable video cameras to interview community members to learn about what’s available and how to publish their findings for others teens and those who work with teens.
“We hope all kinds of people in Champaign-Urbana will be excited to open themselves up to these teens by volunteering to be interviewed as a way to improve the teens’ access to resources and sense of belonging in the community,” she said.
“The information the young people gather will be valuable to others who work with teens and to the entire community,” said Avery. The information will be presented on a special Web site where asset maps will be displayed and in a printed booklet. Then a task force made up of adults and teens will determine where gaps exist in resources for teens and come up with an action plan to close the gaps, said Karen Simms, supervisor of the Community Connections program at the Mental Health Center.
“When kids feel like they play an important role in the community, their investment in the community changes and their parents’ investment changes,” Simms said. “This project will give kids of color the opportunity to be viewed differently and be celebrated for being talented and resourceful.”
Ann Bishop, co-director of the U of I Community Informatics Initiative, said the project is an opportunity for young people and adults to interact in a situation where they are working toward common goals rather than in a situation framed by conflict. “Trying out these relationships when they’re rooted in a sense of trust and optimism can be a bridge to further constructive relationships,” she said. “Ultimately, I hope the project will be one more tiny step in transforming the fabric of our community so it better recognizes the needs and strengths of our youth.”